Recently in Strange Legal Procedures Category

One New York man is making headlines after his arrest for first degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle. Darwin Barnes, of Rochester, New York, has somehow managed to have his driver's license suspended 46 times. What makes this even more shocking is that Barnes is only 51 years old. Hold off on doing the math for a minute.

On Monday, Barnes was pulled over doing 30 mph over the speed limit. When officers ran his information, not only did they discover that Barnes' license was currently under suspension, but that his license had been suspended 45 other times over 17 different occasions. Assuming he started driving at 16, he is averaging 1 occasion of suspension every 2 years (with each occasion averaging 3 license suspensions). Believe it or not, Barnes still has 20+ suspensions to go before he catches up to the thirty-something year old Paul Wheeler from Indiana.

In response to these budget cuts, Director of the Missouri State Public Defender Michael Barrett invoked a previously unused state statute that gives his office authority to assign cases to private attorneys. Gov. Nixon, previously the state's attorney general, was Barrett's attorney of choice.

Hayek's neighbor, who is an animal lover and dog owner, has expressed deep regret over Hayek's dog's death. She wasn't aware that it belonged to the actress, or even that the dog was dead. Here's what reportedly happened.

People are crazy about the movie "Star Wars." They will wait in line weeks to get a ticket to the premiere of a new franchise release and cry when they finally see it on screen. True devotees are many and they are committed like few other super fans.

The Star Wars frenzy is reaching new heights with the recent opening of "The Force Awakens," and geeks everywhere are competing to show they're the most into the movie. But no one will beat what Darth Vader already did last year. A New York man legally changed his name to that of the movie villain, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Within a day, a single Tumblr post about the color of a dress had been viewed over 28 million times. Caitlin McNeill, who attended a wedding in Scotland, asked an innocent-enough question: Is this dress white and gold or black and blue?

With all the strong opinions floating around social media (using the hashtag #TheDress), you'd think she asked if it was OK to strangle a puppy. But, no, war broke out over how people perceive the color of a dress (your author thinks it looks white and gold, by the way, though my editor disagrees).

People can perceive things in wildly different ways, which isn't just a problem for a woman trying to buy a dress. It also influences our criminal justice system.

Failing to appear for a court hearing can lead to some harsh legal consequences, frequently including a bench warrant, even if the original crime was banal. Normally, a bench warrant wouldn't make the news.

But this is no ordinary bench warrant. Police in Post Falls, Idaho, were shocked to receive an arrest warrant for a 9-year-old boy. What did he allegedly do to merit getting arrested?

Lawyers for the Dallas County Elections filed a petition asking the court to extend email voting privileges to workers who treated Duncan and those who may have subsequently had contact with those workers, reports the Wall Street Journal. Duncan, a Liberian national, died earlier this month in Dallas after contracting Ebola in Liberia. Those who may have been potentially exposed to the virus are typically subject to restrictions on their movement and regular health checks for 21 days, the incubation period of the disease.

What led to this unusual, but not unprecedented step to allow voting by email?

Growing concerns about the spread of Ebola aren't just limited to talk of restricting flights or quarantining people who have possibly exposed to the virus.

The state of Louisiana was granted a court order Monday preventing the incinerated belongings of a Texas man who died from Ebola from being shipped into their state, reports The Times-Picayune. The restraining order comes after the Louisiana landfill in which the waste was to be disposed had already refused to accept the ashes.

Nevertheless, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell apparently wanted to make sure the ashes stayed out of his state.